Rabbi David Kaplan - Philosophy of Mitzvot: Immersion in the Mikveh

[Music] alright mitzel 175 is the Mitzvah that one should immerse in a mikveh to become tour various forms of touma you have to have the immerse in a mikveh now nowadays nowadays the only requirement for immersion in McPhee nowadays which is absolutely a requirement is for a woman who is a Nita she has through immerse in the mikvah before becomes permissible to her husband men immerse in the mikvah is a custom nowadays it is not an obligation the only time halacha Hasidim immerse in the mikvah and a regular basis there people go to the mikvah everyday men go to make everyday men never make a bra going into the michael women make a bracha because they have to go to the maker men do not have to go there is no Brock I'm going to the mikvah and the only time the halacha says it's a mitzvah to go to the mikvah is an air of Yom Kippur Irving Kippur than a hollow kakoj has a mitzvah for everybody go to the mikvah to purify yourself but you are not obligated in the little issue world there are many there go on air of shabbos many of you below every Friday there somehow go every day by the cinema it's certainly a major part of their major part of their rich of their daily schedule and so on and so forth but the obligation is only obligation is only when it comes to when it comes to wedding called for for women now the mikvah has to be 46 is a measure of water call it's not exactly yelling but in our Terms let's say it would be 40 gallons to make a kosher mikvah and it has to be rain water so there's a connection and then because I was always connected to a pool of rainwater that has gathered and then it comes into the mikvah through some sort of connecting pipe and it's very very complex to make it that it should be a kosher mcveigh need an expert imac vows in order to build it to build a mikvah but the mikvah is the first thing that's built an interest community of all the priorities after you have to build a mikvah no mikvah no Jew so you have to build a tough double and make the plus the the severity of the Avera of a man living with his wife if she's not been to the maker is very severe therefore the mikvah is the first priority even before a shoal or a school or anything else that make it has to be built now the you remember we spoke about the number 40 the number 40 represents the number of renewal they have 40 days on IRC night in the Jewish people are going into a new state 40 days for the conception of a child 40 days of the flood when the world has to be renewed their several number 40 repeats as of well here you have by no coincidence that a kosher McPhee has to be 40 set up because there is a renewal of sort over here a woman who has become Tommy she goes into a mikvah there's a renewal and it always involves any sort of tomah impurity always evolve loss of life or loss of life potential so that a if you come in the county with a dead body or if there's a dead rodent or if a man has had an omission or a woman has been straited all these represent loss of life or loss of life potential that's always there anyway so the mikvah and forty cents represents a form of renewal now what's uh what's with the commentary say is that you know it it also represents it when's the last time it when is a human being ever totally submerged in fluid when is it what is it the mother stomach risen another stopping a baby it submerged in fluid is totally surrounded by fluid and then he becomes born new so so there is a concept here I hate to use the expression of a born again right but you become almost like a born again jus you go into the mikvah you have removed your clothing completely so you are very similar to a baby who is surrounded by fluid in the mother stomach then the baby comes out and say a step of renewal in Judaism is always recommended for somebody who is whatever I verra a person may have done whether intentionally or unintentionally in a person feels bad the best thing for a person to go to the mikvah just to give yourself a fresh start it feels like a person's got a fresh start I'm turning over a new leaf now that's one of the things that's recommended the other thing is for any of their a person does they should immerse themselves in the waters of tora tora is the greatest purification tour is called a fire and there's a fire that cleanse like it's like you having yourself blow-torched you know now some of these mixes in israel I've been to somebody's because they have these boiling hot pools in them some of them and the water is warm or it's cold or it's just absolutely sizzling I don't know of any how local that says that you have to sizzle in the mikvah you know the people do it I guess it's a it's a it's a feel-good thing you know maybe get a little jahanum to cleanse the sins I'm not sure exactly not sure exactly what the purpose is but I've been some of these mixes I can't go into the hot water it's it's impossible you see this little older Shaun Rogers you know City she was coming walking pezzo right down into or come out red like a tomato and I the guy I was 121 make four years of guys in the mikta they have like these 3 pits so there's the cold the warm and the in the boiling hats I start putting my feet in AI couldn't it's a mistake by the way if you're gonna do it you just gotta walk right in I putting my feet as boiling how to couldn't and his little old city GA walks past me he goes down into the McVeigh you just hear the sizzling sound crackling sizzling sound as it goes down into water then he sticks us head out in the water he yells at the mikvah and then says 50 doesn't use her but such kind of high so why isn't it hot today you know what was the water wasn't hot enough you had he didn't get fully cooked you know so I don't know I don't know what the source of that I don't know any source you just have to go into the body and the body of kosher what's called kosher kosher mikvah water and part of the idea is a land animal a land animal is not capable of living in water so what you're really doing is when you go into water what you're doing is you are totally stepping out of your environment you're totally out of your natural habitat and you're suppressing your mercy in water again to show that I'm stepping out of what I was and I now it's a renewal of sorts and that's why that's why it's surrounded by this number 40 I had a guy I just met a guy in the plane the second person I met the other guy I met he had a student here years ago who is in the American Navy and he was in the at the time they had set the help but in the record the submarine that had the wreck for being underwater for the longest period I was eight months now a submarine I can't I i had to last in a submarine for about 10 minutes he was in a submarine for about eight months he told me that they have what he called a it's all infrared infrared light so you know they got to go through certain testing in order to get it becoming that sort of branch of the Navy and he told me after eight months that when they came out they were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and he was the second guy out when they finally surfaced he was like a out he told me he felt like when he comes out of the top of the summer he said he felt like he was being born and he comes out in there you know in your surround of a water there's no land any were visible in sight but was the first error that they had had in eight months under submarine he said it was so tighten their that wouldn't it would they were sleeping three in a and a bunk in and you know they're stacked up three you can't turn over at night if you want to turn over you have to get out of the bunk and turn yourself over and crawl back in on the on the right side you couldn't there's not enough room then of room to twist over in the bunk that was like a piece of toast you know you got to take it out and do redo it on the other side he go he said when he wanted a really good night's sleep he would take his blanket and pillow you go into the missile room and he would just lie down on a nuclear missile you know with his with his pillow and blanket you know and then and he didn't get a good night's sleep where he had more room to room to turn he just hope nobody pushes the wrong button on the you know also texting you know your blasted up in the middle of night on a nuclear and a nuclear missile so so the idea of being born again it's what they make fit to make this just it's an idea of renewal that's what we're going into it that's what I go into the microflora yeah yes sir you always murder they learn the mission of me Cavazos the Shiva home I'm not sure whether it is i'm not sure i know they learned it some of it has to do with the the the letters spell something out the letters the first letters introversion smell something up i'm not positive why that it why they do that but that's right they learn me gross it could be that it has to do with death in impurity because somebody has died but i'm not there that's only a guess I'm not the circle [Music] you